External Lookup Fields - Select All - $$HOST Specific | Community
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JohnMitchellWF
JohnMitchellWF
August 12, 2025
Solved

External Lookup Fields - Select All - $$HOST Specific

  • August 12, 2025
  • 1 reply
  • 455 views

I've been tinkering with setting up internally managed objects such as task or issue lists to serve as external lookup options for my users to select as part of a custom form workflow.

I really like the ability to layer in 1-2 choices to drill down to a specific set of choices within a list.

 

However, there is one point within the UI that makes it hard to drive adoption:

Take for instance the list of 50 US States. If the Issue list I have set up lists all 50 states, those all appear in the external lookup multi-select dropdown as intended, but for a user to select all of the states, they have to click each state, click back into the lookup, click another state...

 

It would be great if we could have a "Select All" interface to shortcut adding all of the possible values into the field. In which case just taking out 1-2 states of the 50 becomes much more user-friendly, rather than needing to add all 48 states via click.

Has anyone ran into this UI limitation and found a way around it?

 

Best answer by skyehansen

I don't have to click back into the lookup after the couple of times*(see note), I can just click all the states I want, but I do get your point (that I have to individually click each thing--even though I'm totally half the clicks you are, 51 clicks is 51 clicks).

 

Believe it or not, we didn't always have a "select all" interface in other fields. This came as a result of some heavy campaigning (or complaining? you decide), so my first suggestion if you haven't already done this, is to submit an idea. 

https://experienceleaguecommunities.adobe.com/t5/workfront-ideas/idb-p/workfront-ideas

 

Unfortunately my second suggestion is that if you need to leverage this functionality, you're better off staying out of external lookups for now. I hate when something boils down to looking at the pros and cons of each type of field, but essentially you're weighing up whether it's better to allow folks to minimize their mouse clicks vs have one field and an easy time of keeping it maintained--and that's a decision best made by looking at the number of users, volume of objects and number of clicks.

 

*By the way, the functionality for this is pretty funky so if you feel like submitting a case to iron this out, that would be great.

1 reply

skyehansen
Community Advisor
skyehansenCommunity AdvisorAccepted solution
Community Advisor
August 12, 2025

I don't have to click back into the lookup after the couple of times*(see note), I can just click all the states I want, but I do get your point (that I have to individually click each thing--even though I'm totally half the clicks you are, 51 clicks is 51 clicks).

 

Believe it or not, we didn't always have a "select all" interface in other fields. This came as a result of some heavy campaigning (or complaining? you decide), so my first suggestion if you haven't already done this, is to submit an idea. 

https://experienceleaguecommunities.adobe.com/t5/workfront-ideas/idb-p/workfront-ideas

 

Unfortunately my second suggestion is that if you need to leverage this functionality, you're better off staying out of external lookups for now. I hate when something boils down to looking at the pros and cons of each type of field, but essentially you're weighing up whether it's better to allow folks to minimize their mouse clicks vs have one field and an easy time of keeping it maintained--and that's a decision best made by looking at the number of users, volume of objects and number of clicks.

 

*By the way, the functionality for this is pretty funky so if you feel like submitting a case to iron this out, that would be great.

JohnMitchellWF
JohnMitchellWFAuthor
August 13, 2025

Thanks for the reply Skye! I will go ahead and submit an idea. I'm also going to post a general observation list for external lookups, like you said, the pros here are super useful, but the cons of limitations around how it actually works right now disqualify the feature for all but the most determined implementors. 

skyehansen
Community Advisor
skyehansenCommunity Advisor
Community Advisor
August 13, 2025

thanks for the extremely thorough list--I'll make sure I link it to our other thorough discussion so we can keep conversations connected.

 

Please also be sure and add your link to the idea to this post. Many users tend to search old posts to find solutions so this will be a good way to get your idea upvoted.

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